THE KEY
After her estranged Palestinian father passes away, Linda returns to her childhood home in Glasgow, one last time. When her 10-year-old self suddenly appears, she is guided deeper into her own memories and her family's past.
"The Key" is a Scottish-Palestinian magical realism film that meditates on the power that personal and collective grief can have on relating with one's own identity. Symbols of longing, collective trauma and family's past interweave with the playfulness of childhood and imagination in this reflective short fiction film.
Cast: Simone Lahbib, Abby Wallace, Habiba Saleh and Firas Ibrahim
Director: Theo Panagopoulos
Director of Photography: Nelisa Alcalde
Editor: Theo Panagopoulos
Production Design: Urte Rusteikaite
Script Editor: Kate Leys
Music Composition: Alexandra Katerinopoulou
Costume Design: Marta Aspe
Make Up Design: Madeleine Drewell
1st Assistant Director: Les White
Sound Recordist: Craig Jackson
Gaffer: Stewart Torley
Casting Director: Anna Dawson
1st AC: Lara Abrami
2nd AC: Dee McGloin
DIT: Joe Jones
Runner: Max McGuigan
Post Production: Serious
Producers: Penny Davies and Simone Pereira Hind for Smashing Pictures
Developed and Executive Produced by Short Circuit and BFI Network
FESTIVALS / SCREENINGS
Winner Best Short Drama - Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival 2025, October 2025
Autumn Screening Days - Independent Cinema Office, November 2024 (Nottingham, UK)
Arab Film Festival @ Arab American National Museum, April 2025 (Michigan, USA)
Inverness Film Festival, November 2025 (Inverness, Scotland)
Texts/Reviews
In The Key, Theo Panagopoulos has created an intimate, moving meditation on memory, grief, and identity. When Linda returns to her Glasgow childhood home after her estranged Palestinian father’s death, she is confronted – literally – by her 10-year-old self, who leads her through the echoes of a fractured past. Delicately balancing magical realism and a deeply human story, Panagopoulos captures the disorienting experience of diasporic grief and the way loss can reopen questions of belonging. Beautifully acted and delicately composed, The Key finds it’s magic in the tender, haunted spaces between generations.
Michael Lee Richardson - Festival Programmer - Mental Health Foundation